No More Learning

331, seems to indicate an earlier hour:

Eat when your stomach serves, saith the physician,
Not at eleven and six.

The performance of plays began at three o'clock.
Cf. _Histriomastix_, 1610:

Come to the Town-house, and see a play:
At three a'clock it shall begin.

See Collier, _Annals_ 3. 377. Sir Humphrey Mildmay, in his Ms.
Diary (quoted _Annals_ 2. 70), speaks several times of going to
the play-house after dinner.

=3. 5. 39 his Damme. = _NED. _ gives a use of the phrase 'the
devil and his dam' as early as Piers Plowman, 1393. The 'devil's
dam' was later applied opprobriously to a woman. It is used thus
in Shakespeare, _Com. Err. _ 4. 3. 51. The expression is common
throughout the literature of the period.

=3. 5. 43 But to be seene to rise, and goe away. = Cf.
Dekker, _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 253: 'Now sir,
if the writer be a fellow that hath either epigrammd you, or
hath had a flirt at your mistris, . . . you shall disgrace him
worse then by tossing him in a blancket . . . if, in the middle of
his play, . . . you rise with a screwd and discontented face from
your stoole to be gone: no matter whether the Scenes be good or
no; the better they are the worse do you distast them. '

=3. 5. 45, 6 But say, that he be one=,
Wi' not be aw'd! but laugh at you=. In the Prologue to Massinger's
_Guardian_ we find:

--nor dares he profess that when
The critics laugh, he'll laugh at them agen.
(Strange self-love in a writer! )

Gifford says of this passage: 'This Prologue contains many sarcastick
allusions to Old Ben, who produced, about this time, his _Tale of a
Tub_, and his _Magnetic Lady_, pieces which failed of success, and
which, with his usual arrogance, (_strange self-love in a writer! _)
he attributed to a want of taste in the audience. '--Massinger's
(_Wks. _, ed. 1805, 4. 121. )

The _Guardian_ appeared in 1633, two years after the printing of
_The Devil is an Ass_. It seems certain that the reference is to the
present passage.

=3. 5. 47 pay for his dinner himselfe. = The custom of inviting the
poet to dinner or supper seems to have been a common one. Dekker
refers to it in the _Guls Horne-booke_, _Non-dram. Wks. _ 2. 249. Cf.
also the Epilogue to the present play.

=3. 5. 47 Perhaps, He would doe that twice, rather then thanke you. =
'This ill-timed compliment to himself, Jonson might have spared, with
some advantage to his judgment, at least, if not his modesty. '--G.

=3. 5. 53. = See variants. Gifford's change destroys the
meaning and is palpably ridiculous.

=3. 5. 77 your double cloakes. = 'I. e. , a cloake adapted
for disguises, which might be worn on either side. It was of
different colours, and fashions. This turned cloke with a false
beard (of which the cut and colour varied) and a black or yellow
peruke, furnished a ready and effectual mode of concealment,
which is now lost to the stage. '--G.

=3. 6. 2 canst thou get ne'r a bird? = Throughout this page
Merecraft and Pug ring the changes on Pitfall's name.

=3. 6. 15, 16 TRA. You must send, Sir. =
=The Gentleman the ring. = Traines, of course,
is merely carrying out Merecraft's plot to 'achieve the ring' (3. 5.
67). Later (4. 4. 60) Merecraft is obliged to give it up to Wittipol.

=3. 6. 34-6 What'll you do, Sir? = . . .
=Run from my flesh, if I could. = For a similar construction
cf. 1. 3. 21 and note.

=3. 6. 38, 9 Woe to the seuerall cudgells,=
=Must suffer on this backe! = Adapted from Plautus,
_Captivi_ 3. 4. 650:

Vae illis uirgis miseris, quae hodie in tergo morientur meo.

(Gifford mentions the fact that this is adapted from the classics. I
am indebted for the precise reference to Dr. Lucius H. Holt. )

=3. 6. 40 the vse of it is so present. = For other Latinisms cf.
_resume_, 1. 6. 149; _salts_, 2. 6. 75; _confute_, 5. 6. 18, etc.

=3. 6. 61 I'll= . . . See variants. The original reading is undoubtedly
wrong.


ACT IV

=4. 1. 1 referring to Commissioners. = In the lists of
patents we frequently read of commissions specially appointed
for examination of the patent under consideration. The King's
seal was of course necessary to render the grant valid.

=4. 1. 5 S^r. Iohn Monie-man. = See Introduction, p. lxxiii.

=4. 1. 37 I will haue all piec'd. = Cf. _Mag. La. _,
_Wks. _ 6. 50:

_Item. _ I heard they were out.
_Nee. _ But they are pieced, and put together again.

=4. 1. 38 ill solder'd! = Cf. _The Forest_, 12,
_Epistle to Elizabeth_, etc. ; 'Solders cracked friendship. '

=4. 2. 11 Haue with 'hem. = 'An idea borrowed from the gaming
table, being the opposite of "have at them. "'--C.

=4. 2. 11 the great Carroch. = See note 1. 6. 214.

=4. 2. 12 with my Ambler, bare. = See note 4. 4. 202.

=4. 2. 22 I not loue this. = See note 1. 6. 14.

=4. 2. 26 Tooth-picks. = This was an object of satire to the
dramatists of the period. Nares says that they 'appear to have been
first brought into use in Italy; whence the travellers who had
visited that country, particularly wished to exhibit that symbol
of gentility. ' It is referred to as the mark of a traveller by
Shakespeare, _King John_, 1. 1 (cited by Gifford):

--Now your traveller,
He, and his tooth-pick, at my worship's mess.

Overbury (_Character_ of _An Affected Traveller_, ed. Morley, p. 35)
speaks of the _pick-tooth_ as 'a main part of his behavior. '

It was also a sign of foppery. Overbury (p. 31) describes the
courtier as wearing 'a pick-tooth in his hat,' and Massinger, _Grand
Duke of Florence_, Act 3 (quoted by Nares), mentions 'my case of
tooth-picks, and my silver fork' among the articles 'requisite to the
making up of a signior.
' John Earle makes a similar reference in his
_Character_ of _An Idle Gallant_ (ed. Morley, p. 179), and Furnivall
(Stubbes' _Anatomy_, p. 77) quotes from _Laugh and lie downe_: or
_The worldes Folly_, London, 1605, 4to: 'The next was a nimble-witted
and glib-tongu'd fellow, who, having in his youth spent his wits in
the Arte of love, was now become the jest of wit. . . . The picktooth in
the mouth, the flower in the eare, the brush upon the beard; . . . and
what not that was unneedefull,' etc.

It is a frequent subject of satire in Jonson. Cf. _Ev. Man out_, _Wks. _
2. 124; _Cyn. Rev. _, _Wks. _ 2. 218, 248; _Fox_, _Wks. _ 3. 266. See also
Dekker, _Wks. _ 3. 280.

=4. 2. 63 What vile Fucus is this. = The abuse of face-painting is
a favorite subject of satire with the moralists and dramatists of
the period. Stubbes (_Anatomy of Abuses_, Part 1, pp. 64-8) devotes
a long section to the subject. Dr. Furnivall in the notes to this
passage, pp. 271-3, should also be consulted. Brome satirizes it in
the _City Wit_, _Wks. _ 2. 300. Lady Politick Would-be in the _Fox_
is of course addicted to the habit, and a good deal is said on the
subject in _Epicoene_. Dekker (_West-ward Hoe_, _Wks. _ 2. 285) has
a passage quite similar in spirit to Jonson's satire.

=4. 2. 71 the very Infanta of the Giants! = Cf. Massinger and Field,
_Fatal Dowry_ 4. 1: 'O that I were the infanta queen of Europe! '
Pecunia in the _Staple of News_ is called the 'Infanta of the
mines. ' Spanish terms were fashionable at this time. Cf. the use of
_Grandees_, 1. 3. It is possible that the reference here is to the
Infanta Maria. See Introduction, p. xviii.

=4. 3. 5, 6 It is the manner of Spaine, to imbrace onely, Neuer to
kisse. = Cf. Minsheu's _Pleasant and Delightfull Dialogues,_ pp. 51-2:
'_W. _ I hold that the greatest cause of dissolutenesse in some women
in England is this custome of kissing publikely. . . . _G. _ In Spaine
doe not men vse to kisse women? _I. _ Yes the husbands kisse their
wiues, but as if it were behinde seuen walls, where the very light
cannot see them. '

=4. 3. 33 f. Decayes the fore-teeth, that should guard the tongue;=
etc. Cf. _Timber_, ed. Schelling, 13. 24: 'It was excellently said of
that philosopher, that there was a wall or parapet of teeth set in
our mouth, to restrain the petulancy of our words; that the rashness
of talking should not only be retarded by the guard and watch of our
heart, but be fenced in and defended by certain strengths placed in
the mouth itself, and within the lips. '

Professor Schelling quotes Plutarch, _Moralia, de Garrulitate_ 3,
translated by Goodwin: 'And yet there is no member of human bodies
that nature has so strongly enclosed within a double fortification
as the tongue, entrenched within a barricade of sharp teeth, to the
end that, if it refuses to obey and keep silent when reason "presses
the glittering reins" within, we should fix our teeth in it till the
blood comes rather than suffer inordinate and unseasonable din' (4.
223).

=4. 3. 39 Mad-dames. = See variants. The editors have taken out of
the jest whatever salt it possessed, and have supplied meaningless
substitutes. Gifford followed the same course in his edition of Ford
(see Ford's _Wks. _ 2. 81), where, however, he changes to Mad-dam.
Such gratuitous corruptions are inexplicable. Cf. _Tale Tub_, _Wks. _
6. 172:

Here is a strange thing call'd a lady, a mad-dame.

=4. 3. 45 Their seruants. = A common term for a lover.
Cf. _Sil. Wom. _, _Wks. _ 3. 364.

=4. 3. 51. = See variants. There are several mistakes in the
assignment of speeches throughout this act. Not all of Gifford's
changes, however, are to be accepted without question. Evidently,
if the question _where? _ is to be assigned to Wittipol, the first
speech must be an aside, as it is inconceivable that Merecraft should
introduce Fitzdottrel first under his own name, and then as the
'Duke of Drown'd-land. '

My conception of the situation is this: Pug is playing the part
of gentleman usher. He enters and announces to Merecraft that
Fitzdottrel and his wife are coming. Merecraft whispers: 'Master
Fitzdottrel and his wife! where? ' and then, as they enter, turns to
Wittipol and introduces them; 'Madame,' etc.

=4. 4. 30 Your Allum Scagliola=, etc. Many of the words in this
paragraph are obscure, and a few seem irrecoverable. Doubtless Jonson
picked them up from various medical treatises and advertisements
of his day. I find no trace of _Abezzo_, which may of course be a
misprint for Arezzo. The meanings assigned to _Pol-dipedra_ and
_Porcelletto Merino_ are unsatisfactory. Florio gives '_Zucca_:
a gourd; a casting bottle,' but I have been unable to discover
_Mugia_. The loss of these words is, to be sure, of no moment. Two
things illustrative of Jonson's method are sufficiently clear.
(1) The articles mentioned are not, as they seem at first, merely
names coined for the occasion. (2) They are a polyglot jumble,
intended to make proficiency in the science of cosmetics as
ridiculous as possible. It is worth while to notice, however, that
this list of drugs is carefully differentiated from the list at
4. 4. 142 f. , which contains the names of sweetmeats and perfumes.

=4. 4. 32, 3 Soda di leuante, Or your Ferne ashes. = Soda-ash is still
the common trade name of sodium carbonate. In former times soda was
chiefly obtained from natural deposits and from the incineration
of various plants growing by the sea-shore. These sources have
become of little importance since the invention of artificial soda
by Leblanc toward the end of the eighteenth century (see _Soda_
in _CD. _). Florio's definition of soda is: 'a kind of Ferne-ashes
whereof they make glasses. ' Cf. also W. Warde, Tr. _Alessio's Secr. _,
Pt. 1 fol. 78^{m} 1? : 'Take an vnce of Soda (which is asshes made
of grasse, whereof glassemakers do vse to make their Cristall). '
In Chaucer's _Squire's Tale_ (11. 254 f. ) the manufacture of glass
out of 'fern-asshen' is mentioned as a wonder comparable to that of
Canacee's ring.

=4. 4. 33 Beniamin di gotta. = The _Dict. d'Histoire Naturelle_,
Paris, 1843, 2. 509, gives: 'Benjoin. Sa teinture, etendue d'eau,
sert a la toilette sous le nom de _Lait virginal_. ' See 4. 4. 52.

=4. 4. 38 With a piece of scarlet. = Lady Politick Would-be's remedies
in the _Fox_ are to be 'applied with a right scarlet cloth. ' Scarlet
was supposed to be of great efficacy in disease. See Whalley's note
on the _Fox_, _Wks. _ 3. 234.

=4. 4. 38, 9 makes a Lady of sixty Looke at sixteen. = Cunningham
thinks this is a reference to the _In decimo sexto_ of line 50.

=4. 4. 39, 40 the water Of the white Hen, of the Lady Estifanias! = The
Lady Estifania seems to have been a dealer in perfumes and cosmetics.
In _Staple of News_, _Wks. _ 5. 166, we read: 'Right Spanish perfume,
the lady Estifania's. ' Estefania is the name of a Spanish lady in B. &
Fl. 's _Rule a Wife_.

=4. 4. 47 galley-pot. = Mistresse Gallipot is the name of a
tobacconist in Dekker's and Middleton's _Roaring Girle_.

=4. 4. 50 In decimo sexto. = This is a bookbinder's or printer's
term, 'applied to books, etc. , a leaf of which is one-sixteenth of
a full sheet or signature. ' It is equivalent to '16mo. ' and hence
metaphorically used to indicate 'a small compass, miniature' (see
_Stanford_, p. 312). In _Cyn. Rev. _, _Wks. _ 2. 218, Jonson says:
'my braggart in decimo sexto! ' Its use is well exemplified in John
Taylor's _Works_, sig.